Bags of ice cubes are commonly sold to retail consumers for use in coolers, to provide extra ice at parties, and other uses. The bags of ice are generally displayed at the retailer in refrigerated merchandisers with one or two doors that open to provide access to the bags of ice.
The retailer or supplier must hand load the bags of ice into the merchandiser through the doors. The hand loading of the bags of ice is time consuming, which adds to the cost of the ice bags to the retailer. It can also be dangerous as the bags can be heavy (commonly weighing 20 pounds or more) and the person loading the bags may be placed in awkward body positions to neatly and fully stack the ice bags within the merchandiser when reaching through the doors. The bags of ice are commonly provided to the retailers loaded on pallets. Even if the ice is made on site, it is typical to store the bagged ice on pallets before the bags are loaded into the merchandiser to be sold. Therefore, there exists a need for a better merchandiser and method of loading bags of ice into the merchandiser.